Open-carry challenges do more harm than good: Your Say

In response to demonstrations by gun rights advocates, Starbucks and Chipotle have asked customers not to bring rifles into their restaurants. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

I am a gun owner, a National Rifle Association member and a concealed-pistol-license holder. I also strongly support the Second Amendment.

Having said all that, I am concerned about those who, in the guise of educating people about Second Amendment rights, create a scene or make a spectacle of themselves.

Let's insist on our Second Amendment rights without doing things that will almost certainly turn mildly supportive or neutral people against us!

— Charles Rogers

The state I live in has an open-carry law. I didn't even know that until I was in a store and a hunter came in with a rifle over his shoulder. He got his stuff and left. I didn't feel threatened at any time when he was there, but I still thought it was odd. I wonder how many have legally concealed guns I don't see.

There isn't a lot of crime where I live. The violent crime I hear about is committed by people in bigger cities, such as Chicago.

I feel very safe when I see a local hunter with a gun slung over his shoulder. Compared with other things, this is not a worry to me.

— Kelli Hopper

Carrying a gun openly in the states that allow it is a choice and a freedom.

Why would you want to tread on someone else's rights?

— Joshua Hudgins

There is an old saying: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. There is no law against carrying a chainsaw into a restaurant, yet I have never felt any reason to do so because I realize how other people would react and how stupid it would be.

These restaurants have to provide a pleasant atmosphere for all their customers, not just the ones who own guns.

— Daniel Ryan

One can respect and support the right to open carry, and still observe that a bunch of people showing up at a restaurant with rifles is a lousy way to make that point.

— David Swain

Letters to the editor:

Rifles have been wielded at Starbucks, Chipotle, Chili's and now in front of Home Depot.

Other than the gun rights absolutists, do you know who must really be loving these acts of intimidation? Amazon, the Internet retailer.

Currently, Internet shopping constitutes only about 6% of all retail purchases, growing at a decent rate in excess of 15% a year. I can see that rate doubling in states such as Texas where the population is being intimidated by gun advocates and open-carry gun laws.

Our best hope to end this insanity might come from the lobbying arm of brick-and-mortar retailers trying to protect their business interests as threatened consumers decide it's safer to purchase online rather than risk a trip to the store.